Monday, February 2, 2015

2.) Choose a spine. An in depth resource book that goes over the basics you want to cover.

3.) Look for supplemental books, videos, activities.

4.) Make a timeline of what you want to do when. It doesn't have to be planned down to the exact date and page numbers, but something general like "Read _____ books during _____ week."

Unit studies can be short or long. They can be as short as one or two days and as long as three months or even a year.

As you plan your unit study:

1.) Start by asking the child what questions they want answers to within the topic at hand. Write them down and when you find the answers during your study, record them in a notebook.

2.) Decide how much time you want to dedicate to the unit study and choose resources accordingly. It can be easy to go overboard. Remember you can always come back to the topic in the future and add on to what has already been learned.

3.) Make a list of library books for your unit study topic.

4.) Make a list of videos with links.

5.) Make a list of books.

6.) Make a list of projects and supplies.

7.) Make a shopping list of resources you'll need to purchase before starting.

Ways to show your work in a unit study:

1.) Photo's and scan's of art and projects.

2.) Keep a journal of questions asked and answers found.

3.) Make a relevant map or graph.

4.) Do some creative writing. A poem, a story, to do with the topic.

5.) Create a blog portfolio and blog about the topic (include photo's, website links, book and video links, original writing, etc.)

Thursday, January 29, 2015

After reading about the "Story of the World" curriculum and about the benefits of going through history chronologically from the beginning, I decided we would start prehistory and Ancient Civilization studies earlier then what is usually recommended in the learning outcomes. The Story of the World Curriculum is adaptable over approx. 3 grade levels, so both my kids will be doing it together. The second time we cycle through it I will have to use the adult history books by Susan Wise Bauer or find other material to fit the same time period, as my daughter will be going through it twice.

"Story of the World" includes Biblical history as well, wherever it fits in chronologically. Once we get into the Middle Ages and Modern Times I think it would be interesting to keep learning about Church History up until the current time, as we go through the timeline to the beginning of time until the present time.

Our schedule will look something like this:

2014 - 2015 Kindergarten and Grade 3Ancient Civilizations
(Story of the World Volume 1: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor)
Including Old Testament History.

2015 - 2016 Grade 1 and Grade 4World Civilizations 500 - 1600
(Story of the World Volume 2: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance)
Including Early Church History and the development of other religions over the world at this time.

2016 - 2017 Grade 2 and Grade 5Early Modern Times, Exploration, Aboriginal Cultures, Canada: Colony to Country
(Story of the World 3: Early Modern Times)

2017 - 2018 Grade 3 and Grade 6Canada and The World
(Story of the World 4: From Victoria's Empire to the end of the USSR)
Potential Supplements for the Canada portion:
"Outlooks 5: Connections Canada" (Oxford Press)
'Outlooks 6: Global Citizens" (Oxford Press)

2018 - 2019 Grade 4 and Grade 7Ancient Civilizations
She will cycle through Story of the World Volume 1 a second time.
He will use "Outlooks 7: Ancient Worlds" (Oxford Press) and "The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome" by Susan Wise Bauer as his spines.

2020 - 2021 Grade 6 and Grade 9Europe and North America 1500 - 1815
She will cycle through Story of the World Volume 3 a second time.
He will use "Crossroads: A Meeting of Nations" (Pearson) with supplements.

Social Studies
Picture books about Canada (from "Come Sit By Me" book list)
Books about Community Helpers.
Printables from Teachers Pay Teachers about Community Helpers.
DK Eyewitness books about the middle ages, castles, etc.

Health & Nutrition
Books about stranger danger and personal safety.
Memorize phone number and address.
Discuss 911.
Introduce the Food Groups with books, videos and activities.
Dental care.
Read "The Story of Me"

MathSingapore Math Primary U.S. Edition
Manipulatives from Learning Resources"Life of Fred" Elementary Mathematics Series (Supplement to our core curriculum, it's just a fun change of pace. Some people use this as a stand alone curriculum. It's very quirky and hard to describe. It's very unique and unlike anything else out there, highly recommend.)

(Why 3 different ones? HWT is the easiest but not quite enough practice, I like the style of cursive in ARFH better and it's extra practice. The Scripture verses are a nice touch. Draw. Write. Now. is just a fun addition and doesn't even feel like work, it also doubles as credit for art.)

I bought "Canada, My Country" by Donna Ward but I don't like it. We'll read some of the books listed but that's about it. I found free printable's about each Province from Crayola Canada online and he is learning about the flags, Provincial birds, etc. that way.

Our Communities Outlooks 3 by Oxford Press
(If I can get a hold of a copy, if not then I'll just put together a unit study this year or use the "Let's Discover Canada" workbook from Apple Press. The Ontario textbook "Discovering Communities" is also available at our local library but I'd prefer the B.C. curriculum).

Read Alouds
Various choices from Sonlight.com, "The Well Trained Mind", Ambleside Online, Veritas Press, etc. Preference given to award winners, books that correspond with our history lessons, and biographies.

This is a sample of my Grade 3 student's schedule. A typical school day is about 2-3 hours on extracurricular outing days (Mondays and Fridays) and about 4-5 hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (I don't include our read aloud, fitness or devotional time in this - that's extra time at the end of the day). We stick to tasks instead of a set time so each slot could be as short as 10 minutes or as long as 2 hours. It really depends on the day and where we are at with things in each subject.

We do most of our read alouds before bed time every day so they are not listed on the schedule. My kids don't like doing school work together in the same room at this point and they both still need enough assistance that it's easier to work with them separately. When my Grade 3 kid has his break time with a show, I have up to an hour to work with my Kindergartener. Then we do piano practice and reading later on in the day. There are some things they can do together at the same time, like art, Bible study, science experiments, devotionals and unit studies. My Grade 3 kid just likes being alone when working on his core work. Next year my Grade 3 kid will be able to do more independent work and then I will end up spending more one-on-one time assisting my daughter who will then be in Grade 1. Monday and Friday are our "extra-curricular outing" days currently, with gymnastics and piano lessons. I tried to keep those days a bit easier and put some of the most fun subjects after our outings since we are all pretty tired those days.

Monday, January 26, 2015

We are not quite halfway through our fourth year of homeschooling. Figured it was time to write an update of what we are up to!

There have been a lot of changes lately, which just does not surprise me anymore. I've never been able to stick to a very specific plan for very long because my kids are constantly changing and their interests are changing and I'm finding new things to incorporate into our plans. In this case some of the changes were even more major then that - but the nice thing about homeschooling is we can go with the flow! :) It's been very exciting for me to consider new things to bring into our learning adventures.

Firstly, I really want to get regular with blogging on the topic of homeschooling, planning and curriculum in the near future. I need to change this blog over to Wordpress and re-design the site first. Rest assured I have big plans for this blog.

Secondly, I've become enthralled with history. We've been focusing on history more then anything lately and it's been so much fun for all of us. We are going through it chronologically. We are finishing up with prehistoric times and starting Ancient Civilizations. So far we have read books about Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt and Ancient China but we will focus on Egypt specifically now for a while. There is a ton of stuff to cover for Egypt so I expect to be here for a while.

I started off the year with a very structured daily plan which was working well for us. We ended up getting things done faster then expected which was great cause I was sick for a few weeks in October and we didn't do much then. We also changed some of our curriculum since then for various reasons so I've been focusing on the basics while researching and planning what we're going to replace some of our curriculum with. It's been a major shift, but I'm close to having a set plan for the next few months. The core curriculum is staying the same. For math and language arts we've figured out stuff that works for us that we will be continuing with. The only thing I still have to choose is writing and grammar curriculum. We were just doing random things in those area's so far. I'm looking into Writing with Ease, Brave Writer and Just Write. I have all of them, just have to read them through now!

Bible - integrated into history studies for the most part, "Fruit of the Spirit" unit study.

Science - complete a "Science Fair Ready" project and present it on a video.

Gymnastics

Geography workbook

Biography chapter books

Kindergarten
Art - study "Monart Method" of drawing

Lots of read alouds - art, science, Ancient Civilizations (she join us for any of the "Story of the World" parts she finds interesting. She doesn't have to join us, but inevitably she is sometimes drawn into the stories and will come and sit with us)

Finish Explode the Code "Get Set" books and start Book 1.

Find some different resources for math (maybe Critical Thinking Co.?)

Ballet

Gymnastics

Swimming

Other things I'd like to work on before the end of the school year (time and energy permitting):

- Science journals (Charlotte Mason style)

- Larger writing projects.

- Logic workbooks.

- Extra word problems in math.

- Chemistry unit

- Foreign languages

Charlotte Mason talks about the importance of mother culture. I've only read a little bit about it so far but my interpretation of it for myself is that mothers need both time to themselves to regroup (and self care... I'll go as far as saying a bit of pampering is necessary!) and also to keep learning and keep their passions alive. For myself right now that means studying the same things my kids are learning, but at an adult level. It helps me stay interested and passionate about teaching them. My plans are to read:

"Mama School"
1.) History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer

2.) The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer

3.) The Chemistry of Life by Steven Rose

4.) A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even if you Flunked Algebra) by Barbara Oakley

5.) Lehningers Principles of Biochemistry
6.) Various books about good writing and grammar.